He's also included the OpenSCAD and STL files you'll need to do the same.

The beauty of his design is its simplicity and flexibility. The bracket and adapter is fixed to iMac but the BitScope isn't.

He can simply unplug his BitScope Mini and take it with him when he needs to "go mobile". BitScope itself is so small that it's effectively just a "plug that activates the iMac Oscilloscope".

As you can see, the BitScope Mini, its port adapter and Tom's bracket are barely visible at the bottom of the iMac display but they're in a very convenient location for a test and measurement workstation. Read More...

It can be used in BitScope Blade packs, racks, modules and clusters in the same way as Raspberry Pi 3 but it offers a range of significant improvements including "Gigabit" Ethernet, fast WiFi and support for Power Over Ethernet (PoE).

At first glance there seems to be little to pick between them. In fact, from a physical point of view they are virtually identical.

While this new Raspberry Pi looks great and is, in our humble opinion, very nicely designed and manufactured it's what you can't see that makes all the difference.

To this end we have been testing this new "slice of Pi" for more than month to discover all the nooks and crannies and we're very impressed with the improvements the Raspberry Pi team have managed to pack in. Read More...

We'll post news about BitScope Clusters at bitscope.com from time to time but if you want the latest information about this project and the range of new Raspberry Pi Cluster Modules we'll be launching soon, see cluster.bitscope.com.

Lots of people also ask us where they can buy a Cluster Module, now. For answers to both these questions, Read More...

The 750 node cluster, comprising five rack mount BitScope Cluster Modules, each with 150 x 64 bit quad-core Raspberry Pi ARM boards and integrated network switches is the first step in a program run by the New Mexico Consortium (NMC), an organisation of three NM Universities and led by LANL.

With up to 3,000 cores working together, the cluster gives developers and researchers exclusive time on an inexpensive but highly parallelized platform for test and validation of scalable systems software technologies.

Gary Grider, leader of the High Performance Computing Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory and home of the Trinity supercomputer said: “It’s not like you can keep a petascale machine around for R&D work in scalable systems software. The Raspberry Pi modules let developers figure out how to write this software and get it to work reliably without having a dedicated testbed of the same size, which would cost a quarter billion dollars and use 25 megawatts of electricity.”

Looking around for a solution to the challenges facing HPC Systems Software developers, Grider said, he “suddenly realized the Raspberry Pi was an inexpensive computer using 2 to 3 watts that you could use to build a several-thousand-node system large enough to provide a low-cost, low-power testbed to enable this R&D.” Yet he could not find a suitable densely packaged Raspberry Pi system on the market - “it was just people building clusters with Tinker Toys and Legos,” said Grider, a widely respected innovator in the HPC world. So he turned to SICORP of Albuquerque, N.M., to collaborate on a solution.

Bruce Tulloch, CEO of BitScope Designs said: “Having worked with Raspberry Pi for quite some time, I’ve long thought it the ideal candidate to build low-cost cloud and cluster computing solutions for research and education. When SICORP approached us with Gary’s plans, we jumped at the opportunity to prove the concept.”

BitScope Blade turned out to be the perfect platform to build the solution. With its ability to power and mount multiple Raspberry Pi in a compact and robust way, BitScope was able to design, develop and build the entire cluster to LANL’s specifications in less than three months.

Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi Trading said: “This is the first time we’ve seen Raspberry Pi packaged in such a way that clusters of potentially very large size can be built. This project demonstrates that even in the field of advanced supercomputing research, Raspberry Pi can have a fascinating role to play.”

A BitScope Cluster Module is on exhibit at The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC17) in Denver this week. Read More...

High Performance Computing is not a field in which we've worked much before but that's set to change, thanks to Raspberry Pi, Blade and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

LANL has chosen Raspberry Pi and BitScope to solve some difficult problems they face as world leading developers of high performance super compute clusters like Trinity and Crossroads. They will explain how at the conference. Read More...

It is available in three editions; Uno, Duo and Quattro to power and mount one, two or four Raspberry Pi.

In this post we'll get you started.

In each package is the Blade (Uno, Duo or Quattro), a Quick Start Guide, Product Compliance Statement, a Safety Guide and set of screws, spacers and tabs.

The Raspberry Pi and power supplies are available separately as there is a range of options from which to choose.

Using Blade is as simple is plugging in one or more Raspberry Pi and optionally HAT, CAP or HUB cards, inserting an SD card and connecting power.

There are a few assembly steps first.

Follow through the guide to learn the options available when assembling it including mounting and powering Blade itself and how to install the Raspberry Pis, HATs, cameras, displays and other USB, Network, I2C, SPI, serial and GPIO periperhals and expansion options that are available.

There's a lot more than meets the eye when using Raspberry Pi with BitScope Blade. Read More...

Like most single board computers, a common problem using Raspberry Pi is how to power it reliably and how to mount it robustly. It can be especially challenging when additional peripherals such as HATs and USB devices like BitScope are used and/or when you're using more than one.

BitScope Blade solves these problems making it easy to build small stand-alone servers, routers and workstations up to full sized compute clusters, private clouds, industrial IoT, edge and fog computing platforms, industrial data acquisition and control systems. HATs and other peripherals compatible with Raspberry Pi are fully supported and all of them work much more reliably when powered by BitScope Blade.

In this post we explain three typical example applications to show how BitScope Blade solves these and other problems when using Raspberry Pi for industrial, commercial and educational purposes. Read More...

It allows Raspberry Pi to be used to build reliable and scalable computing solutions in industry, commerce and education.

The new models expand the features and capabilities of the original adding support for camera and display connections and full access to Raspberry Pi I/O including I2C, SPI, UARTs and GPIO via the Blade HUB connector underneath each Pi.

Like the original, Blade Reloaded boards are very accommodating, accepting DC power from 9V to 48V, and they can be used with the same wide range of rack, power and mounting solutions.

Whether it's a stand-alone solar powered weather station in a remote area, a multi-channel test, measurement and data acquisition system for factory automation, or a full scale compute cluster with 40 nodes or more, BitScope Blade makes it possible. Read More...

Bruce was invited to present a seminar about cluster and physical computing with BitScope Blade and Raspberry Pi at the Sydney Linux User Group meet up at Google last Friday. It was a good talk followed by a solid Q&A session.

Check it out his short video to learn the key differences between Pi3 and Pi2. You can also learn how he used a Duo Pi to power and mount both side by side and connected the Pi3 to the TV in his hotel room.

Blade is BitScope's industrial power and mounting solution for Raspberry Pi.

Originally designed with Raspberry Pi 2 in mind, Blade systems can be built using either model. The built-in wireless connectivity in the new Pi3 means that in many cases wired Ethernet connections are not required and the faster 64-bit quad core CPU means more powerful compute clusters and private cloud platforms can be built using Blade Packs. Read More...

Instead we can now offer comprehensive industrial quality, highly reliable solutions using Raspberry Pi. You can build very flexible and scalable test, measurement and data acquisition systems using low cost BitScope Micro and BitScope Mini and BitScope Blade. It works with other solutions too, like Sense HAT.

It doesn't end there. BitScope Blade is also well suited for stand-alone servers and workstations, cluster computing and cloud hosting infrastructure, remote sensing, general physical computing and education. Read More...

Karl-Ludwig from Butte Verlag will present a session about Electronic measurement with Raspberry Pi and BitScope Micro.

He'll be explaining how to get the most from BitScope Micro & Raspberry Pi with examples including an IR controlled model elevator and some fault finding examples with electronic circuits.

We'll also be showing our new low cost Micro Snap prototype boards designed for BitScope Micro. They're ideal for all sorts of prototyping for makers working in educational and industrial fields.

We're also very excited to be exhibiting BitScope Blade, our new industrial power and rack mount system for physical computing using Raspberry Pi and BitScope Micro. You can use it to build network test, measurement and data acquisition solutions that scale to 32 analog and 96 logic channels with just 4 Raspberry Pi and 16 BitScope Micro! We'll have working prototypes on the stand. Read More...

Any oscilloscope probe with 1:1, 10:1 or other attenuation ratio can be used. It supports active differential, current or any other probe which is BNC terminated and designed for an oscilloscope.

However, Tom Thumb is not just for test and measuremenent with a single probe.

Its compact in-line design with built-in header connectivity for all of BitScope's I/O makes it well suited to building data acquisition and automated test systems.

BitScope Micro itself is only 20cm wide. It's ideal to use as a single channel slice in a larger test and measurement system. We designed Tom Thumb to make it easy to build very low cost large scale systems with BNC connectivity using Raspberry Pi (and its four USB ports) together with BitScope Micro. Read More...

Of course, if you are a reseller of similar products or serve the maker, education or industrial markets and you would like to stock our products we would love to hear from you! Please email us resale@bitscope.com. Read More...

More recently, many people have asked if BitScope is compatible with other ARM based computers. In principle there is no reason why not. The only requirement is that the board supports a hard float edition of Linux and an ARM core capable of supporting the ARM11 instruction set. Read More...

This is a limited time offer for the Christmas New Year period. It's shipped from their UK warehouse and they'll ship it anywhere. Farnell have amazing order turn-around but unless you're in the UK pre-Christmas delivery is unlikely.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers, friends and partners for an amazing 2014. Farnell and most of our other partners will be open for new orders over the Christmas New Year period. We will be too but after tomorrow (Christmas Eve) we will not be despatching new orders until Tuesday December 30th.

We're looking forward to a big year in 2015 with the release of some exciting new accessories for BitScope Micro, a open source programming platform for Raspberry Pi and a range of new test & measurement projects to build.

Both connection standards are very similar and each supports a wide range of device and circuit connection choices.

However, they are not identical.

In addition to physical differences they are functionally different. The Diagnostic Port is effectively a subset of Smart Port which is aimed at Test & Measurement whereas the Smart Port is more general purpose.

In all cases it's possible to connect the supplied mixed signal test clips to the analog and logic inputs. The differences appear in how to connect waveform and clock generator outputs, how to connect standard oscilloscope probes and whether BitScope can be used to power and control a circuit or device under test. Read More...

Any passive probe with 1:1, 10:1 or other attenuation ratios can be used. It supports active differential, current or any other type of probe which is BNC terminated and designed for a standard oscilloscope.

MP01 is not just for oscilloscope probes. It also allows the use of BNC coaxial cables for connection with other lab equipment and it connects the logic inputs and waveform and clock generator outputs via a 16-pin connector between the BNC sockets.

When used with MP01 it means BitScope Micro can be configured and used in many different ways; as a compact dual channel digital storage oscilloscope, an 8 channel logic analyzer, a mixed signal data acquisition system, a waveform and/or clock generator, a configurable automated test system or various combinations of these. Read More...

If you cannot make the show have a look at the BitScope Micro Video Tutorial for a comprehensive 12 episode explanation of all things BitScope Micro and Raspberry Pi from an unboxing to circuit analysis! Read More...

He introduced BitScope Micro and demonstrated how it can be used with Raspberry Pi and some other systems to perform multi-channel mixed signal test and measurement.

Starting with an unboxing he showed how to set up and use the software and how to connect with other lab equipment, how use the waveform generator to learn how oscilloscopes work and even what power line hum looks like simply by putting his finger on an oscilloscope probe.

Using a tiny mixed signal circuit he explained how BitScope Micro can enhance an understanding of electronic circuits and mixed signal systems and he explained how to program BitScope in Python and other languages.

We've since repackaged this hour long webinar as a 12 episode video tutorial for BitScope Micro! Read More...

The webinar will be posted soon for those who mised it but the slides we used are available for viewing now.

During the webinar Bruce Tulloch unboxed and introduced a new BitScope Micro and explained how it works and what it can do.

Most importantly he showed "proof of life"; how to get up and running with BitScope Micro straight out of the box without any external circuits or equipment required.

He explained the how BitScope DSO, the standard software for using BitScope with Raspberry Pi works with BitScope Micro and he showed this software on other systems including Macintosh and Linux.

He demonstrated many other things including how to connect BitScope Micro to BNC terminated oscilloscope probes, how to program BitScope and how to access it remotely via a network using a Raspberry Pi as a network gateway capabable of powering and connecting with up to four BitScope Micros at once! Read More...

Bruce Tulloch and Norman Jackson will introduce BitScope Micro and explain how it works and what it can do. They will demonstrate how it can be used with Raspberry Pi to perform multi-channel mixed signal test, measurement and data acquisition.

Using a simple mixed signal circuit they will explain how BitScope can enhance one's understanding of electronic circuits and mixed signal systems. Read More...

If you're wondering what BitScope Micro is, check out this video where BitScope's Managing Director, Bruce Tulloch, unboxes a brand new BitScope Micro and explains the key features and operation with Raspberry Pi.

When we first launched BitScope Micro we did not anticipate just how popular it would become with Pi enthusiasts, makers and students around the world.

We've had some difficulty keeping up with demand so we're pleased to be able to work with element14 to ensure BitScope Micro will always be readily available.

This interface defines a standard way to access all BitScope's analog and digital signal inputs, outputs, power, ground and control signals. Most models also include waveform and clock outputs.

With the launch of BitScope Micro we wanted all the core functionality of Smart Port but in a much more compact 10-pin configuration.

The BitScope Micro Diagnostic Port is an IDC-10 based 10-pin alternative to Smart Port.

Whereas the Smart Port interface is designed for complete system I/O, the Micro Port is designed for compact multi-function mixed signal test & measurement, automated testing and passive signal monitoring. It provides most the functionality of the Smart Port but omits the power and dedicated control lines. Instead it offers reassignable signal routing and a sensible pin layout to enable access to all of BitScope's analog and digital inputs, waveform and clock generators for a wide range of test, measurement and data acquisition applications. Read More...

They keep local stock and ship all BitScope Micro orders next business day in the UK.

Pimoroni's pricing includes VAT and shipping is free for UK customers.

They will ship elsewhere in the EU too but we will have resellers in Germany, France and elsewhere soon so you might like to wait a month or so if you want to buy locally.

We rather like Pimoroni's colourful approach to all things Raspberry Pi and we got talking to them recently. Pimoroni is famous for the colourful Pibow Case designed for Raspberry Pi and Picade arcade cabinet and we've got a few things planned for BitScope Micro with PiBow coming soon!

In a nutshell, they have similar features but quite different performance, specifications and physical characteristics.

BitScope Micro is a low cost mixed signal test and measurement system configured as a go anywhere "probe" housed in a translucent heat-shrink tube.

It's tiny, light weight (12g) and water resistant - ideal to take anywhere.

BitScope Mini on the other hand is a small but complete mixed signal system which is a full superset of BitScope Micro. It is housed in a robust extruded alumium case, can provide power, control and I/O signals to connected systems and has some more advanced features and higher performance. Read More...

Lots of people have asked us what's included with BitScope Micro. The simple answer is everything to get started except Raspberry Pi!

BitScope Micro with integrated USB cable.

One set of 10 test leads with grabber clips.

Pair of colour coded analog shorting plugs.

Connection key card with pin connections.

Printed package and getting started guide.

Short-form BitScope DSO software guide.

BitScope Micro itself is tiny so needless to say the package is pretty small too. We're shipping these little guys out as fast as we can!

All pending express orders have shipped and are now turning around in 24 hours. We hope to have all remaining priority orders shipped before Easter.

We continue to ask that you check your order history for the latest shipping news instead of emailing us about your order. Please bear with us for the next week or so, we've never dealt with such high demand before! Read More...

It seems a lot of people want a scope for Raspberry Pi and we knew BS10 was an ideal starting point. It's small, low power, high performance and USB powered.

However, for many people BS10 has more than they need and we've been asked frequently if we could make an even smaller BitScope for the Pi. Enter BitScope Micro! This is our smallest, most cost effective model yet but it's still a full feature BitScope. It's an Oscilloscope, Logic Analyzer, Waveform & Clock generator and Spectrum Analyzer all configured as a tiny light weight water resistant mixed signal probe! Read More...

BS10U has become our most popular model with schools, clubs and universities. We have always offered discounts for volume and group orders but until recently these discounts were available via institutional purchase or for resale only.

By popular request, we've now integrated our retail discount list pricing into the online store so you can place a bulk order or combine one order with some friends to access all available discounts.

If you are fitting out a lab or setting up an electronics or robotics club they can make quite a difference. For most models, discounts start for orders of two or more units. The only requirement is that we can despatch it as one consignment to one address in the name of one person, company or institution direct from our factory.

Accompanying the BitScope DSO V2.6 production release we've started migrating to a new documentation publication system.

Our aim is to make documentation available in a continuous and accessible way so you can read it online, download it or print it for reading later. The first example is the official BitScope DSO User Guide. We plan to release all our user guides, API and technical specification documents this way soon.

At the top right of each document page you will find a Download menu or button from where you can grab a PDF version for offline reading or printing. Some documents also allow printing or saving to other formats such as Word and our documentation download page still has the list of PDF copies for convenient download as well.

For those who are interested, we're making use of Google Docs for this and following our website upgrade late late last year we're now able to embed it all directly so you can bookmark them.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our thanks to all our customers for your support during 2013! Our offices and warehouse will be closed from today until January 6th. The next shipment date for orders received during the break is January 7th. We have some new and exciting developments for BitScope in store in 2014 so stay tuned and see you then!

We have long supported direct network access for remote data acquisition and diagnostic work with our network BitScope models such as BS325N or BS445N. It's how the SYDNEY online demo works across the Internet.

BitScope Networking Model.

These models can be used remotely without the need for a server because they are LAN connected devices that use the UDP/IP stack to transport BitScope Packets directly between BitScope and the host. They can do this because they have a built-in LAN Interface Adapter (called LIA).

However, we have received many requests to do the same thing with USB BitScopes so in a recent blog post we demonstrated how to connect USB BitScope models like BitScope Mini to a network using tools such as VNC and X.

But we wanted more flexibility so we've replicated the functionality of our Network BitScope models via a new server that can run on any host, even the PC on which the BitScope software is run. The result is BitScope Server.

As with any digital scope, quantization noise is produced when converting analog signals to their digital form.

However, unlike some low cost scopes this is generally not a problem with BitScope because the noise can be minimized using its software controlled analog attenuators and prescalers. These ensure the full A/D convertor span is always used.

The remaining quantization noise is very low when compared to the digitized signal and cannot be seen on the display. This animation shows a 100mV sine wave at some varying attenuation and prescale values on BS325.

It's the same signal in each case but the resolution of the waveform shown changes dramatically as the ranges are changed. The smoothest waveform is the one captured with optimum attenuation and prescale. However, when measuring very low level signals or when performing spectrum analysis (as can be done with BitScope), minimizing quantization noise further can be beneficial. Read More...

We have always supported remote access and device sharing with network BitScope models such as BS325 and BS445 and we've had an older model (BS300N) quietly running 24x7 for some years in the R&D lab to demonstrate this.

By simply downloading BitScope software and running it on an Internet connected PC, anyone can connect with this publicly accessible BitScope to try out the software without needing to own their own BitScope.

Recently, this demo has become rather more popular than we expected, so we've made a few changes. First, we upgraded the BitScope itself to a current model BS325. This is faster than the older one and can demonstrate some of the more advanced features now available such as analog prescalers, input offset controls, larger capture buffers and more flexible sampling, among many others new features. It also means software apps including Logic, Meter and Chart can also be shared remotely (in addition to BitScope DSO). Read More...

We have long supported direct network access for remote data acquisition and diagnostic work with our network BitScope models such as BS325N or BS445N. It's how the SYDNEY online demo works across the Internet.

We knew it was possible but we also knew it would require a server so we decided to explore the options by reconfiguring BitScope Pi. We'd use Raspberry Pi as the server (instead of the stand-alone desktop system for our Electronics Projects Lab) and we'd use off-the-shelf hardware and software solutions to connect via the network (using WiFi in this example).

Two options immediately sprang to mind; X over SSH or VNC.

Our goal was to access a USB BitScope remotely from any PC, tablet or phone that supports either of these protocols which between them should allow support for almost any client device. Read More...

It's a new device which was returned by a customer following pretty clear evidence of rather unfortunate mishap during transit.

Of course we shipped him a new one as soon as he notified us and we've not had something like this happen before but, after some investigation based on the shape of the marking on the package, our courier suggested it was most likely crushed in a fork-lift accident during unloading.

Does not happen often we're told but, ouch!

Now we build BitScope tough, but perhaps not quite that tough. The case a 3mm walled solid aluminium extrusion designed to handle the rough and tumble of a typical student lab or engineering workshop. A person of average weight can stand on one and it won't bend or break, but we wondered, did this one still work?

To cheers in the office, it did still work so we've decided to put this one in the trophy cabinet!

Ever since the original design, BitScope has had a Smart Port socket for connecting analog and digital signals to its inputs and outputs. This interface also provides power, ground and control for a connected circuit and most models provide waveform and clock generator signals too.

The Smart Port Interface was originally designed using a DB-25 connector but we switched to IDC-26 and current models use this new standard. Every BitScope provides access to at least two analog inputs, 8 logic inputs, power and ground lines. The interface has general purpose control signals which can be used to control connected circuits or switch logic and most models include a waveform generator. Read more...

Back in the day, all oscilloscopes were analog and the update rate was usually quite high (>50Hz) because the waveform appeared on the display only briefly requiring a high rate to appear "permanently", much like analog TV.

This had implications; it was generally not possible to see waveforms that were not periodic and one-shot capture was usually impossible.

Most modern oscilloscopes whether they are stand-alone or USB based like BitScope are digital and the refresh rate is irrelevant when it comes to persistent waveform display.

It also means they are able to capture single waveform events such as glitches and display them persistently for analysis. While these oscilloscopes are often designed with one-shot capture in mind there are many situations where repetitive capture is needed and in these cases update rate specification can be important. Read more...

To see why an oscilloscope with single ended inputs (and a shared reference) imposes a serious constraint on the types of measurement that can be made, consider a tank circuit. The measurements we seek to make are of voltage across the inductor (L) and the voltage across the resistor (R). The topology of this particular circuit makes this possible with a normal oscilloscope because both components share a common reference and this reference happens to be ground. What if the circuit was such that this was not possible? Read more...

It replaces the BitScope News (which remains available) and we've moved some recent posts from the news to this blog. The blog will provide more frequent and informal updates about BitScope and anything we find interesting that relates to BitScope and it will be syndicated via RSS for your favorite reader.

We undertook the website upgrade and we're launching this blog in preparation for a range of new software and product releases.

Among them are Raspberry Pi support (already announced) APIs for embedded ARM and x86 systems in automated test and acquisition, new open source software applications and some unique low cost accessories for BitScope which we hope will change the way people approach test, measurement and data acquisition. Stay tuned and feel free to contact us anytime if you have any questions or suggestions for future posts.

Connect any current model BitScope via USB or Ethernet with a Raspberry Pi to build a stand-alone mixed signal oscilloscope with built-in logic analyzer, spectrum analyzer and waveform generator.

Our pick for Raspberry Pi is BS10. Like the Pi itself this tiny BitScope is very low power which means you don't need a USB hub. Simply connect directly to the Raspberry Pi, add a monitor and mouse, and you're good to go!

We've ported BitScope DSO and BitScope Library software to Pi and others will be made available soon (and some as betas now if you're keen).

There's lots more for BitScope on Raspberry Pi coming soon, especially if you're into programming your own automated test, measurement or data acquisition on the Raspberry Pi.

Stay tuned and feel free to contact us anytime if you have any questions.

BitScope DSO | Tutorial Examples

This tutorial provides examples of several analog, mixed signal and logic waveforms captured and displayed with a BitScope and the BitScope DSO application. There are several other examples including waveform spectra and video too.

As well as reading about these examples online you can try them yourself on your Macintosh, Windows or Linux PC by installing BitScope DSO and opening the offline replay data files (available via the tutorial).

You don't need a BitScope to do this.

For a little more fun, try a real BitScope live via the Internet; simply click the Online Demo button at the top of the tutorial page to learn how to connect with the Sydney BitScope directly. This BitScope is sometimes quite popular so if you have trouble reaching it, please try again later. By way of comparison the first tutorial page has the Sydney waveforms so you can see what they look like even when you're not online.

BitScope DSO and our other software offer a huge range of features and learning them all can take a while. For all the details about DSO see the User Guide and for each of the other applications, such as Logic or Meter, you will find guides included in their release packages.

However, to make it even easier, we will publish some more tutorials soon to explain many of the newer software and hardware features such as input sensing, protocol decoding, the effective use of range, scale and offsets for mixed signal work, trigger setups, grounding and voltage references and much more.

Stay tuned and feel free to contact us anytime if you have any questions.